This October 5-6, NASA Space Apps Challenge participants will collaborate across borders, cultures, and experience levels, using NASA’s free and open data to conceptualize solutions to real-world challenges we face on Earth and in space. NASA Space Apps invites 2024 participants to consider the far-reaching influence of the Sun on all aspects of Earth and space science as they take on a variety of challenges, including ones authored by NASA Heliophysics scientists.
About NASA’s Helio Big Year
NASA’s Heliophysics Division studies the nature of the Sun and its influence on Earth and space. The Sun is the primary source of energy for Earth. As that energy moves around the planet, it drives wind and weather patterns, grows plants and supports ecosystems, and when trapped by greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, affects our climate — all topics for our 2024 challenges.
NASA Heliophysics’ “Helio Big Year,” held from October 2023 to December 2024, invites the world to celebrate the power of the Sun’s influence by making heliophysics science and information accessible to all and inviting people to engage in citizen science activities. You can gather to witness a solar eclipse or an aurora and even follow Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to the Sun.
“Our whole solar system – every planet and even the space in between them – is connected to and influenced by the Sun. It’s a good metaphor for our increasingly-connected world, where we need to think about how changes in one area can have widespread impacts,” said Sarah Frazier, Heliophysics Communications Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
